


Snow Day

by MyrddinDerwydd



Series: Vakara Ryder [8]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Holiday Fic Exchange, Snowball Fight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21927934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyrddinDerwydd/pseuds/MyrddinDerwydd
Summary: What happens when you're stuck on Voeld?For CelticKnot, Mass Effect Fic Exchange 2019! I hope you all enjoy!
Relationships: Jaal Ama Darav/Female Ryder | Sara, Jaal Ama Darav/Ryder
Series: Vakara Ryder [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1340209
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27
Collections: MEFFW Secret Santa Exchange 2019





	Snow Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CelticKnot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelticKnot/gifts).



> **Shelesh Words (from Angaran Expansion Project)**  
>  \- rofjinn - a poncho, cape, cloak; draping garment worn over the shoulders and neck  
> \- dibellen - darling one, a person you are fond of  
> \- taujy - twelve, two hands  
> \- veshaanan - someone pleased with their own shit  
> \- paavoa - welcome  
> \- ha, yal - an exclamation, followed by 'hold on.' Effectively, "Hey, wait!"  
> \- hestalj - projectile balls  
> \- skkutja neranj - exclamation, roughly “fucking stars!”  
> \- jinesh - high covering; cowl, collective term for the long folds of flesh around their head and neck.

“Wooooo!” Ryder jogged toward the sunlamp like she’d won some type of sporting event, hands raised overhead. “Finally, we cleared out that base. No more midnight kett raids on this continent, thank you very much.” She slung her bulging pack onto the ground, sending up a small wall of snow. They were sheltered from the winds of the storm here, but there were heavy drifts against the walls.

Jaal strode into the golden ring of light and warmth behind her, snow piled high on his broad shoulders and sliding down his _rofjinn_. “Again, the Resistance thanks you, _dibellen_.” His enthusiasm increased noticeably after he dropped two large supply boxes inside the cleft in the icy cliff, wrapping his arms around Ryder’s armored body from behind. “Your support has meant a great deal--” 

“Oh, stuff it Jaal,” Ryder leaned her head back against Jaal with a sigh. “We were just the last piece your people needed to really push them back.”

“Are we having this conversation again?” Cora’s white armor camouflaged her into the blustering snowstorm until she was nearly within the lamp’s glow, and only the violet glow of biotics explained the huge bulk of containers she carried. 

“Apparently not.” Jaal hummed his approval and loosed Ryder, reaching up to remove his helmet. 

“Pathfinder team, do you copy?” Vetra’s voice crackling over the comms landed in the epic triangle between bored, annoyed, and anxious. 

Cora immediately responded. “We copy Vetra, mission success. Didn’t you receive our short report? I sent it an hour ago.” 

“Negative, Harper. Good to hear from you.” The relieved hum in Vetra’s subvocals was audible. “The only reason we haven’t sent out a rescue party is that we’re damn near snowed in ourselves.”

“Iced in, to be precise,” Kallo’s chipper tenor piped in. 

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” Gil actually sounded sheepish. 

“How did you manage to get my darling Tempest _iced_ in?” Ryder sighed, but nothing could knock down her triumphant mood after such a victory.

The ship-board crew all started talking at once, nearly inaudible through Drack’s deep undercurrent of laughter.

“Overriding comm priority, Pathfinder,” SAM interrupted. “Vetra, the line is yours.” 

“Huh.” Ryder started dragging her pack into the cliff path in Vetra’s surprised pause. “It’s a long story, but the Tempest is fine. Just iced in until the snow clears, Pathfinder.” 

“The snows will melt rapidly once the storm halts, Ryder.” Jaal’s quiet voice beside her wasn’t audible through the comms. _“Taujy_ days, perhaps.”

Ryder glanced back at Cora, who was shaking her head, clearly annoyed. So, normal. 

“Vetra, are you well-supplied to ride this out for a week if needed?” Ryder asked, leaning her pack against a stack of crates in a larger stash. “Jaal thinks it will take a few days to melt once the storm stops.”

“Yeah, we’re good. You’re the ones trapped outside on Voeld, Ryder.” Vetra said.

“Not really, we can shelter at the Resistance base. We’re there now.” Ryder waved away Cora’s insistent tapping on her own helmet, asking for the comm. “It’ll be a few snow days, that’s all. I’ve been wanting to spend more time with Commander do Xeel and the other angara here. Do you think that will be a problem, Jaal?” 

“Not at all,” Jaal’s laugh over the comms seemed to ease everyone’s mood a little. “But you must tell me, what is a ‘snow day,’ Ryder?” 

Ryder grinned like a cheshire cat, wide, toothy, and full of mischief. “SAM, you can open the channel now.”

“Of course, Pathfinder.” 

“All of you good with being on a week-long stationary vacation?” Ryder asked the group. The chorus of varied ‘yes’ responses from the Tempest wasn’t exactly surprising. “Great. Sorry you’re all stuck on the ship instead of here with us.”

“I’m at the base too Ryder,” Liam called out. “Headed your way with a re-supply team for the cache of goodies you brought in.” 

“Vetra, I want a full report on what happened with the Tempest, ASAP.” Cora edged into the conversation. 

“It’s already in Ryder’s box, I’ll send you a copy.” Vetra replied. “Tempest out.”

“Pathfinder team out.” Ryder immediately bent and scooped up a double handful of snow, armored hands packing a perfect, white ball of pure joy. She tugged off her helmet and turned to Jaal and Cora, breath puffing into a cloud in the frigid air. “This--” she tossed the snowball up lightly, catching it again, “is a snow day, Jaal.” 

_Spoof!_

Cora’s blue faceplate disappeared in a puff of white as the snowball exploded in her face. It didn’t stick to the slick synthetic material, or they’d all have been walking snowpeople in minutes.

“Hmmm.” Jaal glanced between the two women, one grinning, the other glaring.

“Yeah, that sums it up Jaal.” Cora planted hands on hips. “It’s on, Ryder. Put that helmet back on!”

“Nope, take yours off and play nice,” Ryder retorted. She quickly rounded another snowball, glad to see Cora lighten up so quickly. Well, a little bit anyway… figures that she’d even take a snowball fight seriously. “Come on Jaal, do angara have snowball fights?” 

“This is a friendly fight, yes?” Jaal asked, but was already scooping snow into his broad hands, the flat jointed pad making quick work of the snowball. 

“Hah.” Cora pulled off her helmet and tossed it beside Ryder’s. “SAM, can you track hits as if this was a combat sim?” 

“Come on Cora!” Ryder hit Cora with another snowball, square in the chest. “Just have fun!” 

_SPOOF!_

Ryder’s world disappeared as a huge snowball exploded in her face, chestplate directing most of the snow upward. 

“Hey!” Ryder yelped, shaking free of the snow to stare at Jaal, shocked. He’d taken his first shot at _her_ ?? “Oh I see how this is going, you… what’s the phrase for that shit-eating grin of yours? _beshenan_?”

Jaal’s grin only widened as he laughed, slipping farther down the icy corridor to a small cavern ahead, with myriad snowdrifts along the edges. _“Vehshaanan?”_

“Shall I begin scoring now, Lt. Harper?” Even SAM sounded slightly amused.

“Affirmative, SAM.” Cora had a snowball in each hand and was stalking down the corridor with a smirk. 

“Oh crap. Jaal, she’s going to destroy us!” Ryder ran for the cavern and dodged left, opposite from Jaal, and dove into a roll toward a large snowdrift. A snowball hit the wall ahead, and she quickly swept an arc of snow into a low wall with a quick flare of her biotic shield. She ducked behind it and turned to see Jaal on the other side of the small cavern with a small pile of snowballs on the ground beside him.

“Perhaps.” Jaal ducked a snowball that Cora somehow managed to send curving toward him from the narrow corridor where she remained. “But you have never seen an angaran snow fight.” 

Sparks arced from Jaal’s hands as he swept each through the snow to either side of himself, and perfect snowballs just… appeared in his hands. It was as if he’d had an icecream scoop of bioelectricity. 

_Crunch!_

Both snowballs hit her, cold flakes melting in her open mouth as she stared at Jaal, shocked. Ryder threw her snowball back, skimming Jaal’s shoulder as he shook with laughter. Damn it was so good to see him like--

_Spoof!_

Cora’s snowball didn’t land with quite the satisfying crunch that Jaal’s electrically formed ones did, but it still exploded spectacularly. 

“Urrgh!” Ryder threw a half-formed ball toward the entryway and dodged back behind her wall. 

“Oh man, perfect timing!” Liam jogged through the opposite entrance to the cavern, trailed by three angara and a sled. He cocked his head toward the greenish-skinned angara beside him. “Hey Moraan, do you guys do snowball fights?” 

_Crunch!_

_“Paavoa!”_ Jaal’s answering snowball hit Moraan squarely in the chest, and they both laughed. _“Ha, yal!_ Don’t spark the _hestalj,"_ he warned, "the humans can’t take in the energy.” 

Fifteen minutes later, there were two walls in the cavern, one constructed with a sled by Jaal and Moraan, the other sheltering Ryder and Jaal (who had taken two hits crossing the cavern to join her). A third wall arced across the outer entrance, a thin, waist-high fortress of biotic construction Cora had entrenched herself behind. 

The other two angara were siblings, Tseek and Bolovan, based on the names Jaal and Liam were calling out, and they had taken the strategy of roaming marauders. Just then they both jumped, powerful legs propelling them high in the air. 

_CRUNCH!!_

The two unleashed at least four snowballs each upon the unsuspecting human, a satisfying barrage of exclamations sounding from Cora as they darted away. 

_Spoof! Crunch, crunch, spoof! Spoof!_

Snowballs flew at the two marauders, their assault on Cora leaving them vulnerable to literally, everyone else. 

“Ha ha!” Ryder laughed gleefully, leaning into Jaal’s hip as she took another proffered snowball. It was larger than hers and flew slower, but Jaal was twice as fast at creating them. Biotics were great at creating walls, moving large swaths of snow, but she’d given up using it for making snowballs. 

Jaal shifted in his crouch, rising just enough to snipe over Ryder’s wall, sending a snowball bursting into Liam’s hair as he ducked. “What is the score, SAM?” Jaal crouched back down beside her as she added to their stack of snowballs. 

“My count on the other angara should be reasonably accurate, as I have been cataloguing their hits based voice recognition of their exclamations combined with location data.” SAM replied.

She shook her head, amused at the AI’s focus on the game. “That’s not an answer SAM, however impressive.” 

“Jaal has scored the greatest number of offensive hits, while Ryder and Moraan have been struck the greatest number of times.” 

“And Cora?” Jaal rumbled, throwing two more snowballs across at Liam’s sled fort. 

“She has scored three-- pardon, two fewer hits than yourself, Jaal. This is due in part to her more defensive strategy.” 

_“Skkutja neranj!!”_ Tseek cursed. “They got me again!” 

“Hmmmm.” Jaal’s _jinesh_ rippled with bioelectricity as he rapidly gathered half a dozen snowballs and darted out from behind the wall entirely. He stood and began throwing in one smooth movement, _rofjinn_ sweeping behind him as he caught both roving angara in the unexpected attack before ending beside Cora’s wall. 

“Hey! What---Mfft!” Cora exclaimed as she was pelted by snowballs. 

Jaal hardly escaped unscathed though, and Ryder stared, watching him raptly as Liam’s team took advantage of the new target. Jaal agilely dodged the first two snowballs, but caught three more in the back before sliding in beside her at the wall. 

Ryder tore her eyes away, catching Bolovan in the thigh with a snowball as they paused to celebrate hitting Jaal. She ducked back down, only to find herself mere inches away from Jaal, melting snow running in rivulets along the folds of his _jinesh_ and into his collar. She ran her fingers over the path, tracing the water with her touch despite her armored gloves. 

“Nicely done,” Ryder murmured. Her heart still caught at seeing those gorgeous blue galaxy eyes smile, narrow pupils widening slightly as Jaal leaned in to kiss her. It wasn’t the first kiss they’d shared, but it still sent a thrill of heat straight through her. His lips were cool against hers, damp from the flying snow, and the intensity of the sudden affection rocked her back on her heels. 

Jaal wrapped one snowy, gloved and around the back of her head, deepening the kiss with a throaty groan. His lips slanted across hers, their breath mixing and sending up a puff of cold vapor. She eagerly slid her tongue across his firm lips, the taste and scent of him still a familiar, alien mystery, even after all of these months. 

“Mmmm,” Jaal hummed against Ryder’s kiss after a long moment, entirely distracted from the snow fight beyond. “I enjoy snow days.” 


End file.
